PETER NAVARRE. accompanied them as guide. With the latter at the helm, they moved down the river amidst the cheers and good wishes of their companions in arms. The voyage was full of dangers. Rain fell incessantly, and the night that succeeded was intensely black. They passed the main rapids in safety, but not until late in the morning, when heavy cannon was heard in the direction of Fort Meigs. The siege had begun, and the difficulties in the way of young Combs were thereby increased. For a moment he was perplexed. To return would be prudent, but would expose his courage to doubts; to remain until the next night or to proceed at once seemed equally hazardous. A decision was soon made. "We must go on, boys," said the brave youth, "and if you expect the honor of taking coffee with General Harrison this morning, you must work hard for it." They pushed forward, and louder and louder fell the cannon peals upon their ears. Combs knew the weakness of the fort, and suspected the strength of the enemy. He doubted Harrison's ability to hold out, and expected to see the red Cross of St. George in the place of the Stripes and Stars. Great was his joy, as he turned the bend in the river at Turkey Point, on seeing the dear old flag waving over the beleaguered camp. At that moment a solitary Indian appeared in the edge of the wood, and then a large body of them were observed in the gray shadows of the forest, running eagerly to a point below to cut off Combs and his party from the fort. The gallant Captain attempted to dash by them in the swift current, when a volley of bullets severely wounded Johnson and Paxton, the former mortally. The fire was an tuckians. That officer had already been informed, by scouts, of the perilous condition of Fort Meigs, and Captain Leslie Combs, a gallant Kentuckian of Dudley's corps, only nineteen years of age, who was at the head of a company of spies, was, at his own request, sent forward to inform Harrison of the approach of succor. It had been a question at a council of officers, "Who shall undertake the perilous mission?" It required courage and acquaintance with the country. Young Combs, eager for patriotic duty and distinction, offered to go. "When we reach Fort Defiance," he said to Colonel Dud-swered by the little band, when the Shawnoese ley, "if you will furnish me with a good canoe, I will carry your dispatches to General Harrison and return with his orders. I shall only require four or five volunteers from my own company, and one of my Indian guides to accompany me." On the morning of the 1st of May Combs embarked on the Maumee for the perilous duty, with two brothers named Walker, and two other volunteers, named respectively Paxton and Johnson. Young Black-Fish, a Shawnoese warrior, guide turned the canoe toward the western shore, and all but poor Johnson made their way back to Fort Defiance. Combs and his Indian guide had suffered terribly, and the former was unable to assume the command of his company immediately. While the British were erecting their batteries opposite Fort Meigs Harrison was constructing a traverse of earth entirely across his intrenched camp, for the shelter of the garrison from the impending storm of iron. The bank was broad and twelve feet in height. The en- | pense was ended, however, at midnight on the emy had no suspicion of what was going on, for the tents of the Americans, standing along the high bank of the river, which the enemy expected to sweep away like gossamer webs, had screened the laborers. When their tents were suddenly moved to the rear of the traverse, the British engineer saw, with great mortification, that his labor had been almost in vain. Instead of an exposed camp, from which Proctor has boasted he would soon "smoke out the Yankees" with hot shot and incendiary shells, he perceived the Americans to be invisible and strongly protected. 4th, when Oliver, with Major David Trimble and fifteen men, who came down the river in a large boat, made their way into the fort bearing the glad tidings that General Clay and eleven hundred Kentuckians were within a few miles. The cannonading at Fort Meigs had been distinctly heard at Defiance, and Clay's whole force had pressed forward as rapidly as possible in eighteen large flat scows. They halted only at the head of the Rapids on account of darkness. meet the Kentuckians, with instructions for eight hundred of them to land on the west side of the Maumee, and march down and capture the British batteries in front. This duty was intrusted to Colonel Dudley. It was arranged for him to strike the blow at the moment when Clay and the remainder of his command should assail the Indians on the left of the fort, and a sortie should be made by a portion of the garrison for the purpose of capturing and destroying the batteries in the rear. On hearing of the near approach of Clay, Harrison planned immediate employment for his troops. He sent Captain Hamilton and a subOn the morning of the 1st of May, notwith-altern in a canoe, under cover of the night, to standing heavy rain-clouds were driving down the valley and drenching every thing with fitful discharges, the British opened a severe cannonade and bombardment upon the fort, and continued the assault, with brief intermissions, for five days, but without much injury to the works and garrison. On the night of the 2d a detachment of British engineers and artillerists crossed the river, and mounted guns and mortars upon two mounds for batteries in the thickets at the rear of the fort. For this expected movement the Americans had prepared by erecting shorter traverses. Again the enemy was foiled. On the fourth day of the siege, when the British, finding their efforts vain, had slackened their fire, Proctor sent a pompous summons to Harrison to surrender the fort immediately. "Tell General Proctor," said the American commander in reply, "that if he shall take the fort it will be under circumstances that will do him more honor than a thousand surrenders." The fort was really feeble, because of the scarcity of ammunition, which had been used economically; and Harrison frequently turned his eyes anxiously up the Maumee Valley to discover, if possible, the hoped-for reinforcements. He had not heard a word from Clay, for Combs had failed and Oliver had not returned. His sus LESLIE COMBS. Dudley and his command landed in good order, and ascended to the plain on which Maumee city stands, unobserved by the enemy. There he disposed his troops in three parallel columns, commanded respectively by himself, Major Shelby, and acting Major Morrison. Captain Combs and his company of thirty riflemen, including seven friendly Indians, moved a hundred yards in front. Having reached a proper point in the forest, back of the enemy's batteries, the right column, led by Dudley in person, raised the horrid Indian yell, rushed upon and captured the works, spiked eleven of the guns, and pulled down the British flag. Harrison had watched the movement with intense interest from his chief battery, and when he saw the proud ensign lowered, he signaled Dudley to fall back to his boats and cross the river according to instructions. At that moment sharp firing was heard in the woods in the rear. Instead of obeying Harrison's command, Dudley humanely went to the relief of Combs and his spies, who had been attacked by a large party of Indians sent up from Proctor's camp. The latter were strong in numbers and eager for blood and plunder. A severe conflict ensued. Dudley was defeated and mortally wounded, and a large portion of his command were made prisoners and marched to Fort Miami. Of the eight hundred who followed Dudley from the boats, only one hundred and seventy escaped to Fort Meigs. Many of the prisoners taken to Fort Miami were massacred by the Indians in cold blood, while Proctor made no effort to stay the horrid tragedy. Tecumtha, far more humane than his fellow-commander of the pale-faces, hearing of the dreadful work, hastened to the spot and instantly stopped the slaughter. The gallant Combs ran the gauntlet at Fort Miami at that time, but escaped unhurt. He yet survives, actively engaged in the duties of an important public office in his native State of Kentucky, full of mental and corporeal vigor. While the tragedy was in progress on the western side of the river scenes equally stirring were observed in the vicinity of Fort Meigs. General Clay had attempted to land not far above Turkey Point, but the current divided his force. Himself and about fifty men landed opposite Hollister's Island, near the fort, when they were assailed with bullets from a cloud of Indians on the high bank above, but they fought their way gallantly and reached the American camp without losing a man. Colonel Boswell, in the mean time, in command of the remainder who had landed near Turkey Point, pressed forward across the plain and up the slopes toward the fort. They drove the assailing Indians before them, and also reached the camp without much injury. There Boswell was greeted with shouts of welcome, and was met by a party coming out to join him in an attack upon the enemy in the rear, British and Indians, who were strong in numbers. They fell upon the foe furiously, drove them half a mile into the woods at the point of the bayonet, and utterly routed them. In their zeal the victors pursued recklessly, and but for the vigilance of General Harrison, who was watching all movements eagerly with his glass, they would have met the fate of Dudley's command. He saw a body of British and Indians gliding swiftly along the borders of the woods to cut off the retreat of the pursuers. Harrison ordered them back, and by obedience they returned without much loss. A sortie was now ordered against the enemy's works on the right, near a deep ravine. Three hundred men, under Colonel John Miller, were detailed for the service. They charged upon the enemy (who were eight hundred strong) with great impetuosity, drove them from their batteries at the point of the bayonet, and scattered them in confusion beyond the ravine toward the site of the present village of Perrysburg. The fight had been desperate, and Miller lost several brave men. But the victory was complete. The object of the sortie was fully accomplished. With these movements, which occurred on the 5th of May, the siege of Fort Meigs was virtually ended. The greater portion of Proctor's Indian allies deserted him. Tecumtha was disgusted, the Prophet was bitterly disappointed, and probably nothing but his commission and pay as a Brigadier-General in the British army secured to that body the further services of the great Shawnoese warrior. The flight of his dusky allies, the discontent of the Canadian militia, and rumors of approaching reinforcements for Fort Meigs, disheartened Proctor, and he retreated to Fort Malden, leaving upon the banks of the Maumee a record of personal dishonor as black as that upon the shores of the Raisin. A Forts Meigs and Miami now present to the traveler, as remains, only grassy mounds. beautiful village called Maumee City, and gardens, and cultivated fields, are now seen upon the place of Dudley's defeat; and no living thing-living there at the time of the siegemay be seen in original vigor, but a stately elm in front of the town, from which, tradition says, Indians sent many a deadly bullet after Americans from the garrison who were taking water from the river. These were returned by Kentucky riflemen, and six savages, it is said, were brought to the ground from that leafy perch. From that tree, near the old "Jefferson Tavern," is a fine view of the Maumee valley and river UP THE MAUMEE FROM MAUMEE CITY. as far as Presque Isle hill and the place of Hull's hard service in traversing the wilderness. He encampment in 1812. As soon as General Harrison was certain that Proctor had abandoned the attempt to gain possession of the Maumee valley, and had returned to Canada, he placed the command of Fort Meigs in the hands of the competent General Clay, and started for Lower Sandusky and the interior, to make preparations for the defense of the Erie frontier against the exasperated foe. He arrived at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) on the 12th of May, where he met Governor Meigs with a large body of Ohio volunteers, pressing forward to his relief. He thanked them cordially, but as the danger was over, he directed them to be disbanded. He hastened to Cleveland, made arrangements for a thorough reconnoissance of the country from the Maumee to the Cayuhoga, and then made his head-quarters again at Franklinton, not far from the present city of Columbus, Ohio. There he labored incessantly in efforts to protect the frontiers and organize an effective expedition for the invasion of Canada, as soon as naval preparations then in progress at Presque Isle (Erie) should be completed, and a squadron on Lake Erie made ready for co-operation with the army. Meanwhile the British authorities in Canada and on the Detroit River were busy with preparations for a more formidable invasion of Ohio, Emissaries were sent among the Indian tribes of the Northwest, and some of the fiercest of them, whom a Scotch trader had collected from the region of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers from Prairie du Chien to Green Bay, rendezvoused at desolated Chicago, and, a thousand in number, marched with him across the Michigan peninsula to Fort Malden, early in June, where they were regularly supplied with army rations. They were impatient for the war path; and Tecumtha had never ceased to implore Proctor to renew the attack on Fort Meigs. Proctor finally consented. A strategic movement was planned by the Indian-British brigadier, which promised success, but an escaped prisoner-a captive at Dudley's defeat-who had fled from Fort Malden, revealed as much as he knew of the plan to General Clay. That vigilant officer apprised Harrison of the menaced invasion, and the commander-in-chief took measures at once to strengthen the weak posts on that frontier. Among these, Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, received special attention. It was reinforced by the gallant young Kentuckian Major Croghan, with a part of the Seventeenth Regiment, and he was placed in chief command there. He was joined by Colonel Ball, and a squadron of cavalry. Harrison was at Fort Stephenson on the evening of the 26th of May, and was there informed that many Indians had been seen on the Lower Maumee. Selecting three hundred men, he made a forced march to Fort Meigs. There he found Colonel Richard M. Johnson, with seven hundred mounted Kentuckians, who had just come down from Fort Defiance after forty days' immediately sent Johnson on a reconnoissance toward the Raisin to procure intelligence. The movement was successful. It was ascertained that there was no immediate danger of an invasion from Malden, in force. Satisfied of this, Harrison returned to Fort Stephenson, and making a circuit by way of Cleveland, went to his head-quarters at Franklinton. Mid-summer had passed, and the enemy made no important hostile movements. The naval preparations were yet in progress at Erie, and it seemed as if the autumn would come before the campaign on the Northwestern frontier would fairly open. But late in July General Clay received information that an expedition against Fort Meigs was preparing at Malden. The rumor was true. Full twenty-five hundred Indians had collected there, and Proctor had a disposable force of about five thousand men. Early in the month strolling bands of savages had committed depredations in the Toledo region; and on the 20th of July Proctor and Tecumtha, with their combined forces, appeared at the mouth of the Maumee. Harrison was then at Lower Sandusky. Clay sent a messenger to him with information and for orders, who returned with the assurance that he should have reinforcements, if needed, and a warning against a surprise. Harrison made his head-quarters at Seneca Town, nine miles above Lower Sandusky, and established there a fortified camp, from which point he could readily co-operate with Fort Meigs or Fort Stephenson, as circumstances might require, as these were posts more immediately threatened. Tecumtha had planned, as we have remarked, an ingenious movement. He was to place a body of Indians on the road leading from Fort Meigs to Lower Sandusky, who, by a sham fight, were to draw out a portion of the garrison of Fort Meigs, with the idea that friends coming to reinforce them were in peril. This being accomplished they were to cut off their retreat, rush to Fort Meigs, and take it by surprise. Toward sunset on the 25th, while the British force lay concealed in a ravine near the fort, Tecumtha attempted to carry his plan into execution. Clay was too vigilant and too well informed respecting reinforcements to be caught in the trap. The sham fight commenced; but a shower of rain and a few cannon-shot in the direction of the Indians scattered the foe. Tecumtha's strategy had failed, and the enemy were greatly mortified. Ignorant of the strength of the fort and garrison, they did not venture upon an assault; and after lingering in the vicinity for thirty hours the invaders all withdrew and made their way toward Lower Sandusky for the purpose of capturing Fort Stephenson there. The British, with their stores, sailed for Sandusky Bay, and a large number of their savage allies marched across the country for the purpose of co-operating with Proctor in the siege. Intelligence of this movement was promptly communicated to General Harri- | hundred Indians. Tecumtha, with almost two son by General Clay. thousand more, was so stationed in the forest as to cut off Croghan's retreat, or permit reinforcements reaching him from Fort Meigs or Camp Seneca. Fort Stephenson was a stockade, with no other heavy ordnance than one iron six-pounder in a block-house which commanded the ditch on one side. The garrison consisted of only To Proctor's demand Croghan firmly replied sixty men, under Major George Croghan of the that he would defend the post until the last exregular army, then only twenty-one years of tremity. His representative, who went out to age. Doubtful of the tenability of the fort, es- meet Proctor's flag, had just entered the fort on pecially against the assaults of artillery, Harri- his return, when the British howitzer opened son had sent Croghan an order, saying: "Should fire upon the stockade and commenced the batthe British troops approach you in force, with tle. In this assault the gun-boats joined; and cannon, and you can discover them in time to all night long Proctor's heavy guns played upon effect a retreat, you will do so immediately, the stockade, receiving occasional responses from destroying all the public stores." Croghan's the iron six-pounder, which was shifted from one innate bravery was known, and this order was block-house to another to give the impression followed by another commanding him to evac- that the garrison had several heavy guns. Their uate the post immediately. The messengers supply of ammunition was small, and it was with it became lost in the woods, and did not used as sparingly as possible. Croghan silenced reach the fort until almost noon the next day, his cannon at midnight, and placed it in the when the forest around was swarming with In-block-house, where it might rake the principal dians. It would then be difficult to obey, and Croghan and his officers resolved to defend the fort to the last. Proctor and his little army was first discovered on Sandusky Bay, on the evening of the 31st of July, by a scouting party on its borders. They hastened to Fort Stephenson with intelligence of the fact, and at four o'clock on Sunday afternoon (August 1) the enemy appeared in the bend of Sandusky River, about a mile from the stockade. They landed with a howitzer and some field-pieces taken from the gun-boats. Proctor immediately entered upon the business of his errand; and having made proper dispositions of his forces and heavy ordnance, he sent a peremptory demand for a surrender of the post. His regulars were four hundred in number, and he had with him several GEORGE CROGHAN. ditch, at the point at which it was evident the main assault would be made. Nearly all the next day Proctor kept up the cannonade, but with little effect. He became impatient, and at four o'clock in the afternoon, when a heavy thunder-shower was rising in the west, he ordered the fort to be stormed. The fire of his cannon was concentrated upon the northwest angle, and toward that weak and imperiled point Croghan directed his strengthening efforts. Bags of sand and sacks of flour were piled against the strong pickets, and the force of the cannonade was broken. At five o'clock the British regulars, in two close columns, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Short, advanced to assail the works. At the same time about two hundred grenadiers, under Lieutenant-Colonel Warburton, made a wide circuit through the woods to make a feigned attack on the southern front. The Short and his party, covered by a tremendous cannonade and concealed by the smoke, were within a few paces of the fort before they were discovered by the garrison. That discovery was followed by a volley of bullets sent by Kentucky sharp-shooters with deadly effect. British quailed for a moment, but rallied gallantly. They leaped into the ditch, and were pressing forward to assail the pickets, when the iron six-pounder in the block-house, which had been masked, opened a destructive storm of grape-shot upon them. The British leader had just cried, "Cut away the pickets, my brave boys, and show the damned Yankees no quarter!" when the masked port flew open, and slugs and grape-shot streamed along that ditch overflowing with human life. Few in it escaped. The British commander was slain. Another party that followed met a similar fate, when a precipitate and confused retreat immediately ensued. The cowardly Indians, frightened by the fort cannon, had concealed themselves in a ravine near by. The whole battle was fought by the small British force, whose gallantry was conspicuous. Twenty-eight of |